Tuesday 13th March 2012

Always-on, high-speed connectivity is the ticket to doing awesome stuff in technology today.

But in a continent like Africa, ‘The Cloud’ is something ‘The Rain’ falls out of.

And still, innovation in the technology realm has managed to flourish and even outpace the more developed world.

We’re talking about television services that use the DVBH standard to beam football matches and news into rural villages; social networks that were designed for exclusive use on mobile phone platforms; funds transfer and electronic payment systems that require nothing more than a SMS text message; insurance products that can be provisioned and procured from the most rudimentary mobile phones.

Outside of the ‘never say die’ innovation Africa employs there’s a great deal the developed world can learn from the developing world, particularly when it comes to building practical solutions that solve real problems.

And with global growth being led by the developing world, these are lessons worth learning.